Re: Welcome!

[Guest guest]

Carole,Welcome to the group! And thank you for sharing your story. Best,AbbyIE since 11/08

 

Good Evening and thanks for welcoming me back to this wonderful group.

I made a mistake when joining and my group mail went to my gmail account. I use my yahoo account for all my group mail so I changed it back.I originally joined this group in May 2009 and my original intro is message 21439. I left the group in Jan. 2010. Life was so busy I really didn't have the time to keep up with this very active list. So an update is in order.

I went back to college for a 3 year program when I turned 50. Since graduation, I have been working in the Montreal library system as a library technician. When I first joined the city, I really enjoyed it. I worked in various locations and it was never boring.

Things have changed. When I started, all city employees were on a master list and we worked everywhere. Now, each borough has a separate list, and if I want to work in other places I have to run around and give my availability to each place, where previously I just had to do that once, to the central office. It really complicates things and has resulted in my having less work than before.

In October 2010, I went to see my mother (who was 87 and living alone) and found her on the floor. She had fallen and couldn't get up. I called the police as I didn't know if my mom had been assaulted or if the place had been robbed. (the front door was unlocked, the place was in disorder, and my mother was hallucinating). She was taken to the hospital where they found that she was dehydrated, had weakened her heart and had a fracture on the first lumbar vertebra. So, for a long time I didn't know if she would be paralyzed, or if she would even survive. They

were going to operate, couldn't and then treated the fracture with a brace. It was really a terrible time for her and also for my family. I spent a lot of time sitting beside her at the hospital. My eating was no longer a problem (I had no appetite, amazing) but I also wasn't getting any exercise.

In December I started back into my aquafitness classes and also started working out at a gym. Then disaster struck again. After 2 weeks of working out and starting to feel better, disaster struck. I spilled scalding tea on my abdomen and thighs and got second degree burns. What pain. That took a long time to heal and I still have the burn marks. (hope they will eventually go away)

I knew I had to get back into exercise when I looked down and realized I no longer had legs, I had tree stumps, no more ankles. I have been really working at walking and doing the aqua classes. I am getting my legs back, at least I now have ankles again.

Scary!My mom is now in a residence and I'm in the process of homologation of the mandate for inaptitude. She can no longer live alone. I also found out that she has Alzheimer's (the doctor only told us it was memory loss). So now I am faced with looking after mom, her house, her affairs.......

I am morbidly obese, and things have got to change. Diets don't work. If they did, I would have never reached the weight I carry now. My phys. ed. teacher said that to lose weight, we have to eat more and exercise more.

Carole